A Path Into Darkness
by Sylva-Gryphon
Summary: Natsu and Lucy were accidentally given a 10-Year Quest, but they didn't know it. Now intertwined with the fate of a cursed town and its citizens, the pair have no choice but to release the enslaved citizens and dig up a few dark secrets along the way. The real question is, will they make it out alive and at what cost? (Nalu but not fluff)


**A/N: Hey everyone, welcome to A Path Into Darkness, mah Fairy Tail Fanfic. For those of you who have been reading this fanfic, you may have previously know it as 'A Road To Recovery' or ARTR. After a lot of thinking and planning, I've decided to rename this fanfic, (I want to use ARTR for another project down the line) and with renaming, comes re-written chapters! I started this fanfic back in 2015 and a lot has happened since. I've grown a lot as a person, and as a writer, and re-reading some of the older chapters made me want to re-write them in my new style, which is a little bit more detailed than my 2015 writing. Each chapter will be pretty much the same with some details and information changed due to inconsistency, and a hell of a lot bulkier in size.  
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**For those just joining, welcome! I hope you enjoy! ****For those who have stuck it out over the years, thank you for your support and patience, I really appreciate it. Chapter 17 is gonna be on the back burner for a bit until I can re-write these chapters. I can't really give a date on when that will be up, but I'll try to get it up as timely as I can.  
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**So please enjoy, let me know what you think in the reviews because it really does help me as a writer**

**\- Sylva xoxox**

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**Chapter 1**

A Journey Begins

* * *

**LUCY POV:**

"Yo Lucy!"

"What do you want?" I call back, not looking at the source of the voice. I already know who it is and know that there is a high possibility that whatever words come out from their mouth next could possibly be either, a) stupid, b) insane, or c) dangerous. I'm already going with all three options.

"Wanna go on a request?!" The voice yelled out across the busy guild hall. I'm currently sitting at the Fairy Guild Bar sipping a very refreshing Pina Colada, which Mira had taken the pleasure of making it a little bit stronger than what I would had wanted it to be. There was a light fuzziness to my thinking, but it wasn't completely incapacitating. I could already hear heavy footsteps walking towards me through the old weathered floorboards of the guild hall. They weren't the footsteps of someone huge, but rather someone who had an incredibly carefree personality and really didn't give two birds about how hard they were placing, rather _slamming_, their feet against the floorboards. I took one last slurp of my drink, essentially rendering it empty before turning to face the source of the footsteps coming towards me.

"Why? You'll only blow everything up!" I replied, folding my arms across my chest and looking at the source of the voice, and footsteps, that now stood in front of me.

"Oh don't be like that, Luce!" A full-grown man whined in front of me. Calling him a man was more of an understatement though, seeing as his 20th birthday was now only a few months away and he still acted with the humour and thinking of a child. Although to be fair, his childish antics were more or less only 60% of the time. The other 40% is when he fights seriously and he drops the humour and the silliness. But with that said, after putting up with his antics for many years now, it would feel a little strange if Natsu didn't act like, well, Natsu. I'm quickly broken out of my thoughts when an arm wraps around my shoulder. I look over to see that in the middle of my daydreaming, Natsu had walked over to me, sat down onto the seat beside me, and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. I look to him, still slightly drifting in my day dream, as he flashes me a smile, his abnormal sharp canines on full display. I am quickly brought back into reality when I remember the weight on my shoulder and my body goes slightly rigid.

"Don't touch me!" I yelled, hitting a man-boy over the head, making him remove his arm from my shoulder. Like I had said, I had put up with his antics for a few years now, and us being pretty much best friends meant we knew a lot about each other. One of the things I remember noticing very early on in our friendship, is that Natsu is a very physical person. I don't mean in the way that he fights a lot, which he does, but how there's a lot of body contact between us. For example, sitting super close up when there is plenty of space around us, resting his head on my shoulder, touching his forehead to mine (and that's only happened a **very** few times), and throwing his arm around my shoulder, exhibit A. I honestly don't know whether it's a thing that he does on purpose or whether it's the whole thing about him not being very good with words or emotions, which could be partly due to the fact that he was raised by a dragon.

"Lucy! You didn't need to hit so hard" Natsu whined, rubbing at his head, his unruly pink, sorry, _salmon_ locks ruffling with the motion. I didn't even hit him that hard, and he knows that too, although sometimes I wonder if he does it to irke me or to make me feel like I'm strong. He quickly recovers and looks at me with pleading eyes, his bottom lip hanging out in a fake quiver, silently begging me to at least take a look at the request. My heart gives a little, knowing that he probably really wants me to do this quest with him.

"So what is this request you want to go on?" I asked, huffing and crossing my arms across my chest. Natsu's face lights up like a kid on Christmas morning. He near bounces out of his chair, as he scrambles to pull out a slightly weathered piece of parchment from his pocket. It's very hastily folded and he tries, and fails, to open it up without ripping it.

"It's just one of those 'Clean out the Bandits' request, but it pays really well" Natsu said reading out the flyer, squinting a little at the words to read them. The idea of a well-paying reward definitely grabs my attention.

"Pass that here" I say, grabbing the paper out of Natsu's hand. The request was just a basic 'Get rid of the Bandits' in the outskirts of Fiore. However, the one thing that caught my eye was the reward. _1,000,000 jewels_! My jaw dropped reading that. My face must have spelt it out as well as Natsu gave me a very amused look.

"You in?" He asked, gesturing to the piece of parchment that I still held in my hands. I quickly look up to him, my eyes burning with the motivation of money.

"Oh, hell yeah I'm in!" I exclaimed before quickly searching the bar for any sign of Mira-Jane, the Fairy Tail bar maid. Finally spotting her in the kitchen, I called her over, wanting to confirm with her our acceptance of the mission request.

"Hey guys" Mira chimed, as she walked over towards where we were sitting at the bar. She walked with a kind of grace that people would never associate with that of a She-Devil. Her silver locks were swept over the side of her shoulder with her signature tied up fringe slightly flopping over to one side. She smiled at us with a gentle smile.

"Yo Mira, Lucy and I want to take this request" Natsu said, pointing at the paper in his grasp. It was more like waving and pointing seeing as how excited Natsu was. Poor Mira probably wasn't able to read what was on it with all of Natsu's flailing around.

"Sure, which one is it?" Mira asked, pulling out a large binded book from underneath the bar. The book landed on the counter of the bar with a huge thud, shaking the bar top. It was an incredibly thick leather bound book, and extremely old as well. According to Master, that book has records of some of the first requests taken when the guild was first started, over a hundred years ago. And even if you don't believe that, the amount of coffee stains, beer stains, and general wear and tear is enough to make anyone believe that it is a very old book

"The uh, 'Get rid of the Bandits' one out in Delfieor" Natsu read, struggling to read the words on the paper. Mira nodded, before opening up the pages of the log book with a very audible crinkle of the stuck together pages. She quickly flipped to the page with a half page of entries, obviously being the log to date.

"The one with the 1,000,000 jewel reward?" asked Mira, squinting to try and remember the requests that were out on the request board.

"Yeah, that's the one!" I piped in as Mira nodded and began writing down the details of our request in the dusty old book. I was told that once upon a time, the log book used to sit next to the request board and everyone was allowed to write in their acceptance of requests, although apparently, that stopped when people began constantly spilling their drinks on the old book. Master decided that maybe it was best if one person be in charge of the book, that way there would be no incorrect entries, and the book wouldn't get anymore damaged seeing as it was basically an heirloom at this point.

"And is Happy joining you on this?" asked Mira, politely. Actually, come to think of it, I hadn't seen Happy anywhere in the guild since I had entered this morning, although I assumed that with Natsu taking this request, he would be joining us later on or we would at least go pick him up from Natsu's place.

"Yea-"

"Nah, just me and Luce today. Happy's off doing Exceed stuff with Lily and Carla" Natsu replied, cutting me off. He had totally caught me off guard with that one. It was strange to me that a) Happy wasn't coming with us and b) Natsu just wanted to go with me. I suddenly realised what this situation was beginning to look like to everyone else and I glared at him but he took no notice, or was completely oblivious to the whole thing. Mira nodded and smiled happily before jotting down our names in the book. It wasn't until I leaned over to see that Mira had written our names inside a love heart. I sent a murderous glare towards Mira who was oblivious to my hate, or merely just ignoring it. I choose to favour the latter

"Well we better get going!" Natsu said before lifting me up and throwing me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Like I had mentioned before with the whole 'Natsu-being-very-physical-with-me' thing, I forgot to mention that he also has a habit of picking me up and flinging me over his shoulder a lot. I yelped and began trying to wriggle myself out of his grip, but to no avail.

"PUT ME DOWN FLAMEBRAIN!" I yelled, pounding at his back. In any normal public place, most people would look at Natsu and I like complete weirdos, but apparently here at Fairy Tail, Natsu manhandling me was just part of a normal day. I looked up almost knowing that Mira would be pulling come cute face at our antics, and sure enough when I looked, Mira was winking at me and making a heart with her hands towards Natsu and I. I reciprocated her feelings by flipping her the bird as Natsu walked out the door with me over his shoulder.

* * *

"You know I could have walked by myself to my apartment. You didn't need to carry me there" I complained, walking towards the train station with Natsu. Apparently Natsu was so excited to go on this request that he carried me all the way to my house and would not drop me until we were inside my apartment. He then proceeded to ask if I wanted him to help me pack for the quest, to which I pushed him out my bedroom door, closed it, and then told him no thanks. I get that he wanted to go on this request but it was really strange and out of character for him to ask me something like that, plus I also thought that he would have had his own packing to do. However, it wasn't until I quickly ducked out of my bedroom to grab my medicine box from the kitchen that I had discovered his already packed bag on the floor, which when I asked him how it had gotten there, he had told me that he had found the request in the guild hall, folded it into his pocket, ran back to his house and packed his bag, before letting himself into my house through the window to leave his bag here, and then go convince me to go with him. Completely done with all this request nonsense, I kicked him out onto the steps outside my apartment and told him to wait there.

"Yeah but you take forever to walk to your place and I wanted to go on the request asap!" whined Natsu, like a little kid. For an almost 20 year old, it's amazing that he acts some much like a child half the time.

"Still doesn't give you the right to break into my house to leave your bag there. And anyway, what would you have done if I didn't want to go on this request?" I asked, glaring at him over the whole 'breaking-into-my apartment' thing. Although he and Happy did it all the time, I still wasn't impressed about it and sometimes it really did make me feel like I could have no privacy in my own home. Yet still, I could never bring myself to change the locks on the windows because as annoying as it was, I always found it a little endearing.

"Eh, I would have just dragged you along anyway" Natsu replied very nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders as if it was nothing. I whipped my head around to look at him, spluttering in a mix of shock, frustration, and anger.

"You can't just kidnap me to go on a request with you, it doesn't work like that! You better not be taking ideas from the way Gajeel steals Levy away for requests!" I exclaimed at him. Natsu looked me with a mixture of a smile and puzzlement on his face.

"It's not kidnaping if you know the person. Plus, I would never take advice from that bolt head. I know that he says that he steals Levy by putting her in his bag, but I don't think I could do that with you because you wouldn't fit in my bag" Natsu explained, not a lick of humour anywhere in his voice as he studied his travel bag, sussing up whether I could actually fit in it or not. There was so much in that sentence that didn't make sense, but already being completely done with his antics for the day, I just gave up and played along.

"Gee thanks, I feel safer already" I huffed, rolling my eyes with a slight emphasis on the sarcasm in my voice. We had passed through the wrought iron gates to the train station and were now inside the indoor portion of the train station. It was a Thursday morning so it wasn't particularly too busy but there were still people bustling around. We managed to locate a departures board and looked for the train we should take.

"What was the name of the town again?" I asked, studying the board, looking at all the various names of places that some of the trains were running to.

"Uhhh I think it was something like Dalfieor?" Natsu replied, scratching his head in confusion of the name on the request paper. I scanned over the board looking for a Dalfieor until I saw something slightly similar, except there was a dark line through the name.

"Well I see no Dalfieor, but I do see aDelfieor, although it's strange how the names crossed out" I puzzled looking at the board. Although Delfieor had a line through it, right next to it was the name 'Rythor' and a departure time, meaning that the service was still running. I personally had never seen or heard of that service before and I was pretty sure neither had Natsu.

"It looks like the trains departing from platform 3 in 20 mins, we should probably start moving" I explained, turning to Natsu, who normally by now, would be throwing every excuse at me as to why we shouldn't board the train while struggling to maintain control over his stomach, but thanks to Wendy's Troia spell, there was no complaining or whining, rather he just nodded and we walked off towards the platform. The platform in question was located on the far side of the station, with barely any people around. The train was already parked at the platform, waiting for the all clear to leave. We found a small bench along the platform and placed our luggage down, whilst I went off to find a ticket booth, leaving Natsu to watch over our gear. There was a small booth near the entrance to the platform that Natsu and I had walked past on the way in that I went up to. I peered through the Perspex glass to see a middle age man with his arms folded up underneath his head, taking a nap. I tapped gently on the glass, not wanting to startle the sleeping man too much. He roused slightly, looking up at me through half lidded eyes before realising I was standing at the glass. He jolted upright and quickly looked around before re-adjusting himself on his chair and fixing up his lopsided cap.

"I'm sorry ma'am, how can I help you today?" The ticket vendor asked, his voice sounding very echoy as it came through the small holes in the Perspex glass. He still looked very drowsy and half asleep, but seemed to be slowly waking up.

"Hi, I'd like to book two tickets on the next train to Delfieor please" I asked, smiling politely with my request. The ticket vendor looked at me slightly puzzled.

"I'm sorry miss, but this train only runs to Rythor now" The ticket vendor apologised. I was slightly confused about why the train wasn't running to Delfieor anymore, but nonetheless, if Rythor was on the same line, Natsu and I could stop off there and then find our way to Delfieor from Rythor.

"Well two tickets to Rythor then please" I asked, as I slided him a small bag containing enough jewel for the two tickets. The ticket vendor nodded at my request, accepting the jewels, and began busying himself with printing out the tickets.

"If I may ask miss, what business do you have going to Rythor?" The ticket vendor asked very timidly, sounding as though he was unsure as to whether to ask the question. I smiled at him softly.

"Oh my partner and I are out on a request in Delfieor" I replied happily. The ticket vendor spluttered in response, completely catching me off guard.

"Delfieor?! Are you sure your request is out in Delfieor and not some other nearby town?" The ticket vendor asked fearfully, his face in a mix of fear and terror. I looked at him quizzingly.

"No, it was definitely Delfieor. Why? What's so bad about it?" I asked, confused and intrigued by the ticket vendors response to Delfieor. It seemed as though he had tried to calm himself down before talking again, his face still plastered with fear.

"There have been some bad things going on there for a few years now. It originally used to be a mining town, known for its lovely forests, but now no one knows whether it still exists or not" he explained. I leant my elbows up on top of the small bench jutting out beneath the window box and rested my chin on my palms, looking at him intrigued, but perplexed.

"What do you mean '_no one knows whether it still exists or not_'? I mean people can still get to it, right?" I asked, still very puzzled about this place that Natsu and I were supposed to be going to.

"A while back, a group is said to have invaded the town as suspected bandits but then took over the entire town. They were a group known as Câne De Mort, a dark magic group. They've since cut off the town from the outside world, shrouding it in a mist. Those who visit it are said to never return, no one knows what happens to them. The track to Delfieor was cut off when the Câne De Mort took over and blew up the tracks, cutting off Delfieor from the world" The ticket vendor explained. I shuddered slight at the thought of what we were getting ourselves. This sounded less like a 'Take care of the bandits' request and more of something along the lines of 'Defeat Dark Magic Group and Free Town', which generally would be an S-class quest. The ticket vendor must have seen my confused and slightly scared face.

"Are you sure you still want to go there?" he asked concerned, pulling me out of my thoughts. I shook my head slightly and smiled, before standing up straight from the window ledge and flashing him my pink Fairy Tail guild mark on the back of my right hand.

"I'm sure I'll be alright, besides, I'm a Fairy Tail wizard and we always manage to come out on top" I said, smiling at him. He nodded slowly before sliding me two tickets through the small rectangle opening at the bottom of the glass. This group couldn't be too hard for us to handle. I mean we had gone through so many battles, some of them with the odds stacked completely against us, specifically the Alverez Empire battle coming to mind. Even though we were so close to losing that battle, some even almost losing their lives, I doubted that this one group could be as formidable as an entire empire. I thanked the ticket vendor for the tickets as he gave me a look almost telling me to be careful, and walked back towards Natsu, who was resting with his head thrown back over the bench and looking up at the ceiling, and his arms folded behind his head. I didn't even need to announce my presence as he probably smelt me and heard me before I even came near.

"Geez Luce, what took you so long?" He asked, bring his head back upright to look at me, his palms now resting on the tops of his bent knees. I held out his ticket towards him which he took and inspected. I sat down on the bench in a vacant space between Natsu and our bags.

"Sorry, I got held up by the ticket vendor for a bit" I explained, putting my ticket away in a small pocket of my bag. I couldn't stop thinking about what the ticket vendor had told me about Delfieor. For all I know, we could be walking right into a death trap. Natsu must have noticed a change in my body language or expression as he looked at me with a questioning look on his face.

"What's up?" Natsu asked, curiously. Although I had said earlier that Natsu could act very childlike, he could also be very perceptive in peoples body language and expressions, picking up on the tiniest of changes. I didn't try to hide it, but I also didn't try to make it worse.

"I'll tell you on the train there" I replied, looking up at the train departure board noting that our train was scheduled to board in 1 minute. Still, even though it was almost boarding time, the only people on the platform in visual sight were Natsu and I.

"But what if people hea-"

"**ALL PASSENGERS ON THE TRAIN TO RYTHOR, PLEASE MOVE TO PLATFORM 3 AS THE TRAIN IS NOW BOARDING**" called an announcer over the speaker, cutting Natsu off mid-sentence. I think Natsu finally knew what I meant by telling him on the train as a small 'Ohh' came out of his mouth. We grabbed all of our luggage off the seat, which really wasn't much seeing as I had a satchel and an overnight bag, and Natsu had his normal travel bag. We boarded the train, deciding to go for a middle carriage, only to find that there was no one on the train.

"Woah, this train is completely empty" Natsu exclaimed, stating out the obvious. We grabbed a double seat facing another double seat and placed our luggage in the compartment above the seats. Natsu then took the liberty of running up and down our carriage, trying to find any signs of life. He then proceeded to enter the carriages in front and behind us to check them too, only to find that they too were empty. On any other trip, Natsu would have been near hurling at just being on a train, much less moving, but as I had said earlier, thanks to Wendy's Troia spell, his motion sickness wasn't going to be an issue this trip. After checking one last time, he finally decided to give up and sit down on the seat next to me.

"This train is completely empty, it's like a ghost town on here. No, a ghost train!" Natsu exclaimed, wiggling his fingers at me and making '_booing_' noises. I swatted at his hands, trying to get him to stop, but to no avail.

"Stop it Natsu" I said, slapping away his hands again, this time making him stop pestering me. He sighed, slumping back into the push red velvet seat of the train. They weren't particularly the comfiest of seats, but they were still better than sitting on bare wooden benches.

"Anyway, you said you would tell me why you had that weird look on your face when we got onto the train, and here we are so spill the beans" Natsu said, turning to look at me. His left leg was now curled up on the seat, resting next to his left which was dangling over the edge of the seat. His body had twisted to face me with his left arm resting on the top of the seat, his left hand supporting his head, and his right arm draped over his right leg. He seemed so relaxed, yet tense all at the same time. The sun filtering through the glass roof of the train station streamed through the carriage window, basking his tan skin and salmon locks in a soft golden light. I still hadn't answered him and his sharp onyx eyes were now staring at me intently, almost boring holes through my head. I looked away from his gaze before recollecting myself to talk.

"The ticket vendor told me some rumours about the place we were going to. He more or less warned me not to go there and that those who have gone there have never returned" I explained, fidgeting with my fingers as I spoke and not looking up at Natsu. There was silence in the carriage meaning he was wanting me to continue on. Although I give Natsu a lot of smack about calling him a child and being sometimes very immature, he could also very quickly age up and start acting like a mature adult. It almost seemed more and more these days the line between Natsu's childlike behaviour and his serious mature adult behaviour were blending into one, and honestly, it was a change I didn't mind at all.

"A few years back, a dark magic group called the Câne De Mort invaded the town of Delfieor posing as bandits before they took over the entire town. Apparently when they took over, they cut off the towns ties to the outside world, like the train tracks, and shrouded the town in a thick mist" I continued to explain. Natsu was still silent and when I looked up at him, he seemed to be thinking hard about something. The carriage jolted slightly, causing my attention to turn to the window and watch the outside scenery of the train station slowly roll away as the train began to move out of the station.

"Câne De Mort huh?..." Natsu mumbled, his voice causing me to turn to look at him. His straight lined mouth turned up slightly at the ends as he looked to smile at me.

"Pssh they sound easy as, you've got nothing to worry about Luce" I assured, using my old nickname that he, and only he, called me by. I smiled back but was still slightly unsure about the mission.

"I don't know, Natsu. I mean this quest sounds like it might be a little bit out of our ball park for our skills and strength" I said, rubbing my arm with my hand. I felt a hand grab my shoulder and I looked up to see Natsu smiling at me, the jagged scar on the side of his face moving up towards his eyes with his smile

"Don't throw in the towel just yet, we don't even know the full mission yet. Plus you said yourself that what he told you were rumours, it might not actually be that bad, and if it is, then I'm sure we can pull through as a team" Natsu concluded, lifting my spirts up high. I beamed back at him and balled my hand into fists in a sign of determination.

"Your right, we will be fine because we're together and things will always be better when were together" I concluded, looking at Natsu with a very determined look on my face. He smiled back in response, his sharp canines on full display, before bumping my fist against his. He held my gaze for a few moments, gold flecks almost swirling in his onyx eyes. I'd noticed for a while now that even though Natsu's eyes were a deep onyx, every now and again if I was close enough to him, I would notice different colours dance through his eyes. Colours like emerald, hazelnut brown, auburn, jade, and gold. I've never actually asked him about it, and nor do I want to ask, but I've always summed it up to his dragon slayer abilities. I mean they've altered his senses and some of his physical features, would it really be a stretch to say that it affects his eye colour too? I was brought back down into reality when I say Natsu's eyes flicker to something behind me. I turned to look and see lush green scenery rolling past the window.

"Hey I forgot to ask you, do you know how long this trip is going to take?" He asked curiously. The train ride obviously wouldn't affect his motion sickness while he had the Troia spell casted on him, but Natsu was generally a person who didn't do well with sitting in one spot for long periods of time. I stood up to reach for my bag in the overhead compartment to pull out a map from my bag. I sat down and unfolded the map gently, not wanting to tear the paper. Delfieor was located up north from Magnolia, past Mount Hakobe, and laid on the norther border between the neighbouring country of Seven and our country of Fiore. The train looked as though it was take us around past the Blue Pegasus Guild, with no stop, and onto the other side of the mountain range.

"I think this one might be an overnight trip, seeing as how far we are going" I explained, pointing out where we were on the map and then where we were going to. I heard an audible groan behind me as Natsu flopped down onto the seat, covering his face with his hands. I chuckled slightly, earning me a annoyed glance through peered fingers.

"It won't be too bad, it'll be over before you know it" I assured him with a gentle smile. I knew he really wasn't that fussed about it and would eventually sort something out for himself to pass the time. He sat back up properly again before folding his arms across his chest and closing his eyes.

"I might get some shut eye then, hopefully that will pass the time" He concluded before going completely silent. I turned towards the window and leaned my head against it, watching as the green rolling fields of the countryside flew past the window. The afternoon sun shone down with the warmth that you would feel wrapped up in a blanket. Soon, my eyes were beginning to drop as well, the rocks of the carriage gently lulling me off to sleep when I was started by a sudden weight resting in my lap. I didn't shriek out in shock, but rather threw my hands up in the air in surprise. I looked down to see Natsu's head asleep in my lap. Initially, I want to wake him up and push him off my lap, but after a few seconds of studying his face, he looked so peaceful asleep, so I decided against waking him up. My hands were still up in the air from the surprise of Natsu in my lap and I gently let them drop to the side of my body, resting them on the seat. It wasn't very often that Natsu looked this peaceful, seeing as most of the time he boisterous and always wanting to fight, but it was almost calming to see him like this. From the way he was lying, I could see the small puckered scar on his neck underneath his scarf, and his most recent scar, the jagged blemish that ran along his cheek. I'd always assumed he had gotten it from his first battle with Zeref but I had never really asked. I softly ran my fingers along it, feeling the soft scarred skin. Natsu shuddered slightly, his face flickering a foreign emotion I had never seen on his face before. I placed my hands gently back beside me before looking back out of the window, letting the lush rolling scenery softly send me off to sleep.

* * *

**NO POV:**

It was late in the evening back at the Fairy Tail Guild and Master Makarov was frantically looking around the guild for something. He was turning over tables, looking under chairs, behind boxes. No one knew what he was looking for and why but whatever it was, it was seemed to be very important.

"Mira!" yelled Makarov, using his unusual loud voice to get her attention. Mira came running out of the kitchen at the sound of Makarov's voice, looking slightly panicked at the tone of his voice.

"Yes Master, is there something wrong?" she asked, concern lacing her words. Makarov sighed, rubbing his forehead with his hand before looking back up at Mira.

"Mira-jane, have you been up to check the S-Class board lately?" Makarov asked, trying to calm himself and use a soft voice with Mira. She shook her head before looking at him with a perplexed look on her face.

"No, I was just about to go up there. Why? Is there something wrong, Master?" Mira asked, getting more and more confused at this situation. Makarov knew that if what he thought had happened was true, he couldn't let any other guild members know, almost predicting the actions they would take if they found out. Mira on the other hand was still a guild member but could be entrusted with this knowledge, knowing that she wouldn't tell any of the others. Makarov held his breath for a second and then let it out, deciding that he would let Mira-Jane in on what was happening.

"Yes. But first, I need you to tell me who went out on a request today and what request it was" He ordered, hoping that he could have faith in Mira-jane about keeping this confidential. Mira obliged and pulled out the old dusty log book from underneath the bar. There was little waiting while she quickly flicked through the pages to find todays log and ran her finger down the column.

"Hmm, let's see… Alzack and Bisca went out on a pest control request near Hargeon early this morning, Erza is out on Mt. Hakobe doing a retrival quest and should be back by tomorrow, Gray and Juvia left for a request today responding to a busted water slide and broken down industrial freezer at Akane Resort, and Natsu and Lucy left for a clean-up quest on the outskirts of Fiore this morning as well" Mira read out from the book. Makarov began mentally ticking off each group and their request before stopping abruptly and glancing over to look at the log book, something not lining up properly.

"Natsu and Lucy, where exactly are they going?" He asked. He had a feeling that of course it would be those two who would take on the request.

"Um, Delfieor, I believe. It takes an overnight train ride to get there" Mira replied, trying to remember what the quest said.

"Shit..." Makarov mumbled under his breath. It had to be them who got it. Fate just had to pick them. If he had known more about that damned request he wouldn't have put it down on the general request board in the first place.

"Master, is everything alright? What's wrong with Natsu and Lucy?" asked Mira, concerned for the wellbeing of her fellow comrades. Makarov looked around the guild hall quickly, noting that no one else was inside the building now except for Mira and himself.

"That quest they took in Delfieor has been raised to an 10-Year request with a reward of 10 million jewel. I thought that the request would be suitable for the lower ranking mages but after looking deeper into it and receiving more information about it, I realised that it was completely above their heads. Are you 100% sure that they took this quest?" Makarov asked, worry now seeping through his voice. It wasn't until Mira had sent out all the request acceptance letters in the afternoon, that Makarov had received a letter from the mayor of Rythor thanking him and the guild for accepting the request and providing more information about said request. The information that was provided made Makarov realise how dangerous this request was for any of the non-S-Class members. The only member who could have and should have taken it on would be Gildarts, but Natsu and Lucy? Makarov was now more worried about them coming back alive than them trying to complete the request.

"I'm certain they took this quest. Is it really that difficult?" asked Mira, now really beginning to worry about what might happen to Natsu and Lucy. Although Natsu was strong and could hold his own against any of the S-Class mages, and Lucy was smart and could keep out of real danger with pure wit, neither of them had ever gone on a S-Class request alone (excluding the time Natsu stole that S-Class request and Erza, and Gray had to go retrieve them), much rather an 10-year request. Mira herself hadn't even attempted to take on a 10-year request.

"Mira, if those two are not careful, they could possibly be seriously injured or die" Makarov explained, seriously thinking about the fact that he might actually loose Natsu and Lucy, two of his children. He wanted to beat himself up over not looking further into the request when he first received it, knowing that if he had, he could have stopped them from going.

"What do we do?! Can we send someone out to get them?!" panicked Mira, snapping Makarov out of his self-wallowing. He shook his head slightly, knowing that there was only one way they could get them out of there.

"Gildarts will be the one that will have to go in and get them, but I sent him a quest only just recently so I do not expect him to return anytime soon, nor can I contact him as he's off the grid. If Natsu and Lucy have not returned in 2 weeks, I will personally go out and get them" Makarov promised before hoping off the bar and walking up the stairs to his office. There would be many questions asked and much paper work to sign off. He knew that Natsu and Lucy wouldn't turn the request down, staying true to their Fairy Tail morals. He could only hope that they didn't do anything reckless. Mira stood behind the bar in total guilt. She had let her friends take this quest without even stopping them. She knew that she too had known nothing about the nature of the request but she could still not believe that she was the last person to see them. If the quest was as bad as Master had said, she may never see Lucy or Natsu again. No more ridiculous fights breaking out in the guild, no more of the radiant smile that Lucy wore nearly every day when walking into the guild, just no more. To Mira, the idea of losing not only one, but two family members, completely overwhelmed her, reducing her to slumped figure, crying on the floor of the guild hall.


End file.
